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Volume 4, Number 4, April 10, 2007 |
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From the EditorPick Great Moments in Heat Treating History TMS announced at its annual meeting in March the results of voting among the scientific community and the public at large for the greatest materials moments in history. The winners are from No. 1 to No. 10: the Periodic Table of Elements (Dmitri Mendeleev, 1864), iron smelting (around 3500 B.C. in Egypt), the transistor (1948), inventing glass (around 2200 B.C. in what is now Iran), optical microscopy (Anton van Leeuwenhoek, 1668), modern concrete (John Smeaton, 1755), crucible steelmaking (around 300 B.C. in India), copper extraction and casting (in what is now Turkey), X-ray diffraction (Max von Laue, 1912), and the Bessemer process (Henry Bessemer, 1856). These are indeed great “materials moments.”
Ed Kubel, Editor ASM HTS EventsInduction Heating Technology & Applications 24th Annual ASM Heat Treating Society Conference and Exposition This preeminent event offers a strong technical program and an outstanding exposition, an unmatched forum in which to exchange both practical ideas and scientific knowledge. Other Heat Treating EventsThermprocess 2007 |
Industry NewsNation’s High-School Report Card Indicates Skills Gap National Association of Manufacturers (Washington, D.C.) president John Engler called achievement scores of U.S. high-school 12th graders from The Nation's Report Card reported by the National Assessment Governing Board “disheartening.” The skills needed to compete in a 21st century workforce are just those that graduates are having the hardest time achieving; i.e., math, reading, and science. The average 12th-grade reading score is the lowest since 1992, and less than one-quarter of twelfth-graders scored at or above the proficient level in math. For more information click here.
Meeting Targets Ways to Improve Energy Performance More than 50 representatives from manufacturing companies, U.S. DOE Industrial Technology Program, EPA ENERGY STAR program, NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and the American National Standards Institute met in March to discuss approaches to engage the industrial sector in promoting greater energy efficiency in U.S. plants. The proposed framework will provide a means to help companies assign greater value to their energy efficiency improvements, verify their energy savings, and receive public recognition for their achievements. For more information click here.
Why Does Industry Resist Energy Efficiency? Author Christopher Russell, Principal, Energy Pathfinder Management Consulting, LLC (Baltimore, Md.) discusses what he perceives as the reasons that industry is slow to adopt steps to achieve better energy efficiency. Underlying causes, he says, include misinterpretations of what constitutes energy efficiency, resistance to admit energy waste, barriers from organizational structure and dynamics, and asset management. For more information click here.
Third 24 Foot Vacuum Furnace at Solar Western PA Facility Solar Atmospheres of Western PA (Hermitage) took chamber delivery of its third 24 ft, 75,000 lb capacity furnace. The furnace is being constructed on site by Solar Manufacturing. The three 24 ft furnaces have been built to meet the growing demand from titanium producers and the use of titanium for aerospace and other industries. Up to 75,000 lb of primary/secondary titanium and other metals are annealed or degassed in a single run. For more information click here.
Alfe Heat Treating Starts Up Facility in Carolinas Alfe Heat Treating (Fort Wayne, Ind.) commissioned a plant in Charlotte, N.C. to handle high production heat treatment of aluminum including solutionizing, quenching, aging, annealing, and stress relieving. The facility is strategically located on the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. The heat treating equipment was commissioned by Alfe Systems (Columbia City, Ind.), which designed, built, and calibrated the entire aluminum furnace system. For more information click here.
Elterma SA Supplies Pit Furnaces in Europe  Elterma SA, Seco/Warwick Group (Swiebodzin, Poland) supplied pit furnaces to plants in Germany and Spain for carburizing and nitrocarburizing. Two furnaces to a German manufacturer will be used to carburize gears and shafts. Two furnaces to a company in Spain will be used to harden and carburize gears and shafts and a third pit furnace will be used for tempering. For more information click here.
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Copyright ASM International® 2007, All Rights Reserved |
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Contact the Editors: To send a letter to the editor or provide feedback write to ed.kubel@asminternational.org 3025 |
